October isn’t just turkey and pumpkins month.
Several weeks ago, I learned that it’s also National Disability Employment month, and this guided some of my reading and thinking, as you’ll see below.
…I read:
Accessibility and the Lack Thereof in the Film Industry by Carolyn Hinds asks us to reconsider our focus on cinemas as the “best” place to watch movies. In fact, streaming services and virtual film festivals have allowed many disabled folks to enjoy films more easily than they could pre-pandemic. Like Hinds, I hope that people in the film industry can recognise the value of accessibility and will maintain their virtual and at-home options for everyone.
Dr. Johnathan Flowers’s article Supercrips, Solidarity, and Crip Families in The Bad Batch is a brilliant analysis of portrayals of disability in the Star Wars universe. It’s given me a framework with which I can determine how disability is perceived and portrayed within my own fiction work.
Lauren Groff’s novel Matrix has all the grime and passion and artistry of the best historical fiction (think Wolf Hall or Rivka Galchan’s Everyone Knows Your Mother is a Witch). This story of poet-visionary Marie de France kept me entranced all the way through.
I also indulged in the audiobook of Monstrous Regiment by Terry Pratchett for the second time in three months. Resisting my special interests is exhausting, so after a few days’ thought I decided to plunge back into the Discworld and its marvellous satire. On this second listening, it was easier to appreciate the poignancy woven into the humour and the expert plotting that makes the commentary on gender, religion, and nationalism so powerful.
…I subscribed to:
The Disability Visibility Project’s website for its terrific assortment of essays, interviews, and podcasts.
The blog Taryn is Autastic. Fellow Canadian autie Taryn has a knack for weaving advocacy and vital information into clear, compelling posts.
…I made:
Some disappointingly lumpy pumpkin squares from an old recipe book. Next time I want to bake something orange, I’m sticking to Cookie + Kate’s recipes.
On the other hand, the banana cardamom buns from Meera Sodha’s book Fresh India were divine – I plan on baking them again for holiday brunch. We also enjoyed her dal recipes very much.
And finally, I looked up last week to see Halloween trimmings everywhere. The end of October already? Time to decorate! So I scrounged some cedar twigs from the backyard and dug out the old wicker wreath and some card stock leaves to make an autumn centrepiece.
In another six weeks’ time, I’ll swap the twigs for evergreen branches. Then it’s baking, tree decorating, familiar songs in the background…but first, November and its solemn darkness.
Enjoy the rest of autumn!
E
Emma Lammers 